The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress
Amanda White |composer=Chris Renshaw |narrator= |distributor= * Mattel Creations * Universal * Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer * ABC for Kids * Deltamac * Barnas Favoritter |runtime=80 minutes |released= 17th March 2020 2nd April 2020 5th May 2020 7th May 2020 12th June 2020 18th June 2020 12th July 2020 17th July 2020 1st August 2020 24th August 2020 1st January 2021 5th April 2021 18th April 2021 3rd June 2021 6th June 2021 6th September 2021 10th September 2021 16th October 2021 2nd January 2022 3rd January 2022 15th May 2022 |previous=Shopkins: Big World! Big Adventures! |next=Shop Team to the Rescue! }} The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie In Distress is an upcoming 2020 American animated adventure film based on the Shopkins toy line and the fanmade series Tyler's Adventures. The film will be animated by Studio Moshi Productions. Plot Main article: The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress/Transcript Tyler is an average human who lives in his house in a small town called Breezy Point. One day, when he's watching TV, a television commercial for Shopville appears on the screen. The commercial is actually a promo for what to expect when you visit Shopville. Tyler is interested in going on a vacation to Shopville, so he packs his bags, and goes on a flight to Shopville where he meets Jessicake, Rainbow Kate, Donatina and other Shopkins and Shoppies who live in Shopville. Meanwhile, in a dangerous and scary castle not far from Shopville, an evil Shoppie named Scarletta Gateau, who lives with her sidekick, Rubie Blaze, look through a telescope and see the Shopkins and Shoppies in Shopville. Scarletta and Rubie are planning to destroy Shopville and kidnap Jessicake, so Tyler and his friends must save Shopville before it gets destroyed. Characters Main Cast *Tyler *Jessicake *Rainbow Kate *Donatina *Peppa-Mint *Apple Blossom *Cheeky Chocolate *Kooky Cookie *Lippy Lips *Buncho Bananas *Scarletta Gateau *Rubie Blaze Secondary Cast *Mystabella *Rockin' Broc *Foxy Lemons *Melonie Pips *Spilt Milk *Suzie Sundae *Shady Background Characters *Cupcake Queen *Freda Fern *Connie Console *Lola Roller Blade *Bonetta Cupcake *Raina Bowloon *Colorful Clutch *Various background Shoppies *Yolanda Yo-Yo *Dum Mee Mee *Toasty Pop *Slick Breadstick *Pam Cake *Popette *Bubbleisha *Strawberry Kiss *Pineapple Lily *Pippa Melon Cast *Joseph May as Tyler *Cassandra Lee Morris as Jessicake *Kayli Mills as Rainbow Kate *Abby Trott as Donatina *Brianna Plantano as Peppa-Mint and Buncho Bananas *Kate Murphy as Apple Blossom, Cheeky Chocolate, Kooky Cookie, Lippy Lips, Spilt Milk, Suzie Sundae and Shady *Laura Stahl as Scarletta Gateau *Philece Sampler as Rubie Blaze *Allegra Clark as Mystabella *Doug Erholtz as Rockin' Broc (uncredited) *Debi Derryberry as Foxy Lemons and Melonie Pips (uncredited) Production Before production on the movie began, Tyler Scott had created a screen test called TylerTales Promo: Take 38 in 2019. He tried to sell the show with it to video distribution companies in hopes that they would give him a budget, but the plan ultimately failed. As Tyler tried to sell the movie, he and his wife Tricia were in major debt and were struggling to come up with money to feed their then 13-month-old daughter, Sydney. After a while, a rich couple at Tyler's church dipped into their retirement funds and gave Tyler $60,000 dollars (US) to get started on the movie. As soon as Tyler got the money, he and his friend, Emma Trees co-wrote and recorded dialogue for the movie. Tyler, deciding he could not possibly animate the whole thing before Christmas 2020 alone, hired two recent art school graduates named Chris Olsen and Robert Ellis to co-animate, but Tricia Scott was not comfortable with several men all concentrated in their house animating, and the three animators, along with Trees, moved Tyler's computer animation system and a couple of office supplies into a rental office at a strip mall on the north side of Minneapolis, MN, right between a Mexican grocery store and comic book store. They also set up blinds on their windows so nobody walking by could see them animating. As soon as animation began, Tyler showcased The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress in magazines and put a 800 number in the magazine in hopes that people would call in and buy as the movie was being made. As soon as animation was done, editing was underway. Tyler was able to rent an editing device for the video for about two weeks. About halfway into editing, the company that the editing machine came from had called and told Tyler that time was up on the machine. He managed to dump the footage onto a hard drive and dump the footage onto another editing device. After everything was done, the movie was shown theatrically and everyone, sleep-deprived from completing the movie, slept for a few days while the DVDs were going off. 500 copies of the movie were sold on DVDs, which, according to Tyler, neither covered for the magazine ads nor the movie's production. Release The movie will be released on March 17, 2020 by Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Marketing In early November 2019, with the film in post-production phase, a screen test was held for an incomplete version of the film, which drew considerably positive reactions from the test audience, with praise directed towards the script, visual effects, and Cassandra's performance. The film's first official trailer was revealed on November 12, 2019. Universal revealed versions of the trailer in English along with dubbed versions in Spanish, French, Italian and German. It soon became the top trending video on YouTube, and a top trending topic on Twitter, while inspiring numerous internet memes and reaction videos. Within 24 hours, the high-concept trailer amassed more than 100 million views across multiple online and social media platforms. On YouTube, the English-language trailer garnered over 1 million likes within two days, and 1.22 million likes within five days. On Twitter, it set a new record of over 400,000 mentions on the day of the trailer reveal. A second trailer, featuring the appearance of Sally Shakes, was released on February 26, 2020. Prior to the trailer's release, Cassandra Lee Morris uploaded a video onto her YouTube channel that features interviews from herself and Cherami Leigh, on the previous day. A third trailer was released on April 22, 2020. On November 30, 2019, Morris, Trott and Mills appeared on stage during the Tokyo Comic-Con event for a full announcement of the Japanese release. On February 7, 2020, days before the film's scheduled release in the United States, a Universal Pictures YouTube channel named "Shoppie Needs Saving" uploaded a video purporting to be a bootleg recording of the film. Spanning nearly 1.75 hours in length, the video shows the production logo sequences of the companies involved, followed by a scene from the film featuring Brianna Plantano, before spending the remainder of its runtime depicting Jessicake performing aerobics to an upbeat, 1980s-inspired synthwave tune. Cassandra aided in the prank, posting it on Twitter as if she was alerting Universal Pictures and the film's official accounts about both the "Shoppie Needs Saving" Twitter account and the alleged bootleg upload on YouTube. The video, which Brianna Knickerbocker described as "brilliant", received 4.2 million views in less than a day. Videogame A video game based on the film is in development by Sharpness Knight Studios and will be released on PC, Mac, Linux, and WebGL on the same day as the film's release. Reception Box Office As of March 22, 2020, The TylerTales Movie: A Shoppie in Distress has grossed $58 million in the United States and Canada, and $112.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $170.4 million, against a production budget of $150 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Tolkien, Poms and The Hustle, and was projected to gross $50–70 million from 4,202 theaters, although the studio was estimating a lower $40 million debut. The film made $20.7 million on its first day, including $5.7 million from Thursday night previews, both the most ever for a film based on a toy line. It went on to debut to $58 million, the best opening ever for a toy line film, and finished second behind holdover Avengers: Endgame, though A Shoppie in Distress had a higher per-theater average ($13,803 to $13,425). In other territories, the film was projected to debut $90–120 million from 62 countries, including $40–60 million in China. In Japan, the film opened at number three, grossing ¥948 million ($8.6 million) in its opening weekend. Prior to its worldwide release, the film grossed $21 million from openings and previews in several international markets, including Japan, through Thursday. In China, the film had an opening day gross of $16.4 million, and a weekend gross of $40.8 million. The film had an international opening weekend debut of $103 million (and a five-day debut of $112.4 million), dethroning Avengers: Endgame at the top of the international box office. Critical Response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 63% approval rating based on 204 reviews, with an average rating of 5.93/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "TylerTales A Shoppie in Distress may not take its wonderfully bizarre premise as far as it could have, but this offbeat adaptation should catch most – if not all – of the franchise's fans." The film holds the highest Rotten Tomatoes rating of all toy line film adaptations. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 52 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while general audiences polled by PostTrak gave it 4 out of 5 stars. Ack Kinmonth called the film "the best toy line movie ever" and wrote, "A Shoppie in Distress works because it's a good movie first and a promising franchise-starter or a brand cash-in second. It's a real film, rooted in character arcs and narrative twists with just enough raw emotion and personal stakes to make the significant special effects moments matter beyond spectacle." CNET's Sean Keane also called the film the best ever based on a toy line, praising Cassandra and calling it an "entertaining romp with plenty of heart". Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen said, "Although the script... tends to compartmentalize the comedy, action and emotional bits rather than organically blending them all together, Letterman's energetic direction manages to hold everything aloft." In a middling review for TheWrap, Alonso Duralde wrote that the "live-action-plus-animation take on the popular show feels both ambitious and lazy, frenzied and sluggish". Songs *Shopkins Theme Song *Leaving On A Jet Plane *Welcome to Shopville *Soak Up The Sun *Putting It Together *We Are Number One *The Mine Song *Sometimes You Make a Friend *Really Useful Shoppie *I Know How The Moon Must Feel *Hallelujah *As Smart As You *Inside Out *The Goodbye Song *The Locomotion Trivia *This film was originally going to use the original designs for the characters, but on January 27, 2019, it was announced that the humanized character designs will be used instead. However, on December 10, 2019, it was announced that the original character designs would return to be used. *The movie was, for a time, intended to be released on digital media services; however, constantly changing release dates pushed the movie to make a theatrical debut instead. *The movie took three years to complete; the script was written between January and March 2019, with the March-written portions being done whilst on a Croatian holiday. The animation itself was produced in-and-out during Tyler's Grade 9 and 10 years of high school, with the majority of the work being completed in March and May 2019. *The decision to bring on Joseph May as Tyler was one made towards the final stages of animation on the special; the original actor had been fired, and Tyler was unable to find a replacement that would fit. Seeing the opportunity for a guest spot on the special, he contacted Joseph, who agreed to record for the special after a deal was made. *Cheeky Chocolate tells Tyler how she started off as a shunter but after proving she was really useful she got her own branch line and coaches. This is a reference to her first few episodes of season 1 of the fanmade series Cheeky & Friends, most notably Cheeky Chocolate and the Breakdown Train. *The "Leaving On A Jet Plane" musical sequence was done during the final stages of production; the scene originally contained narration, but it was decided that a cover of the song would be better suited. Only the "I think I can, I THINK I can" line was retained. There was also another Tyler line was cut from the scene: "Make way for the Little Human Express!", originally written in for the "Run-Over" shot of the sequence. *Tara Strong originally was supposed to have voiced Foxy Lemons and Melonie Pips but due to time constraints Debi Derryberry voiced them instead. *This is Popette's only appearance with a face; following TylerTales: The Animated Series, she was reverted to her original faceless look. *Many changes occurred during the scriptwriting phase: **A variety of scrapped shots for the intro, including: ***Pam Cake stopping at Small Mart Junction, next to Melonie Pips and Foxy Lemons; we would then follow Strawberry Kiss as she hurries off to work, passing Freda Fern, with Shopville in the distance serving as the final credit shot. ***An alternate version of this scene with the Fashion Boutique replacing Small Mart Junction. ***Pam Cake passing through a prototype International Foods Freight Yard (as seen in the early teaser trailer/early intro). This was scrapped due to the uploader of the set raising concerns. **Pippa Melon and Popette having speaking roles, which were reduced to silent appearances in the special. **Tyler would have had his driver from Soeren Hermansen's earlier project, Heidi, but was scrapped as animation went underway. **Donatina would have had a driver **A scene following the crash at Great Wolf Junction in which the signalman on duty raises the alarm to the Shopvillian Fire and Rescue Centre. A later version (cut due to the production schedule) would have humorously had Marsha Mello as the signalman. This sequence has been reproduced for the upcoming TylerTales Presents: A Shoppie in Distress DVD. **Mystabella would have collected her breakdown train from a mountain station, rather than Fashion Boutique Junction. Goofs *Some actors and actresses are not credited for voicing their characters: **Debi Derryberry and Doug Erholtz in both dubs for voicing Foxy Lemons, Melonie Pips and Rockin' Broc. *When Tyler jumps over the fence near Suzie Sundae, his front bumper clips through the rails as he lands. When he lands, his wheels stop moving. *When Jessicake gets the party ready, her side rod does not move, resulting in both it and her feet being out of place. *A workman uncouples Jessicake from the sign when it is put up, but in the next scene, she is still coupled to it. *When at Small Mart, the balloons are shown to have no faces, but at Town Square they have gained faces. *"Welcome to Shopville" has a few animation errors: **When Peppa-Mint enters the yard at the beginning of the song, a loading bay can be seen beside her but in the next shot, it is gone. **In the overhead shot of Town Square, Slick Breadstick, Popette and Pam Cake's eyes are not animated and appear closed. **Melonie Pips' body has been raised noticeably higher compared to her chassis. *When Scarletta Gateau speaks to Tyler, the paint on Tyler's right tank is chipped. *"Sometimes You Make a Friend" had a animation error: Tyler's footplate is blue instead of white. *After Donatina says "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," the party decorations disappear before the scene changes. The party decorations in this same scene have a birthday cake, but for the rest of the time they are on screen, it is absent. *Rubie Blaze tells Tyler that she was planning to kidnap Jessicake, when earlier in the special, Scarletta Gateau was shown to actually be the one planning the scheme. *Tyler clips through a bush when he is getting the party ready. *When Mystabella saves Tyler and Jessicake, the chain between the latter two clips through her snowplough. *In the UK dub at the end of the special, Kayli Mills gives Rainbow Kate an American accent when she says, "Goodbye, my friend!" In Other Languages Category:Movies